2-Year-Old Pulls Trigger, Shoots 4-Year-Old

The boy found the gun in a car and accidentally shot the girl in the upper body, police said. News4's Julie Carey reports.

(Published Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017)

A 2-year old boy accidentally shot a 4-year-old girl after the children were left alone in a vehicle with an unsecured firearm, police said.

Police said Isaiah Marshall Davis, 26, of Winchester, a woman and three children were traveling from Winchester to Colonial Beach, when they stopped at a truck stop on the 9700 block of James Madison Highway in Opal, Virginia, on Friday night.

The adults got out of the vehicle, leaving the children inside unsupervised and unrestrained, police said.

The boy found the gun and accidentally shot the girl in the upper body, police said. A toddler, who was also in the car, was not injured.

A clerk at the truck stop told police the woman brought the little girl inside the store, saying the child had been bitten by a dog. The clerk said the woman took the child to the bathroom to clean her up with peroxide and Band-Aids.

Before authorities arrived, the woman and child returned to the car and drove off. It wasn't until reaching Colonial Beach that the child was taken to the hospital and treated for her injuries.

Authorities arrested Davis and charged him with three counts of felony child abuse and neglect, reckless handling of a firearm and allowing children to access a firearm.

Davis was taken to Northern Neck Regional Jail. Investigators said Davis is a convicted felon and wasn't supposed to have a gun.

It is illegal in Virginia to leave a firearm unsecured in any way that could hurt a child under the age of 14.